Four new Galileo satellites were successfully launched on December 12 from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. This launch brings the Galileo constellation to a total of 22 satellites.

Four Galileo satellites are to be launched on an Ariane 5 launcher from the Guyana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guyana at 18:36 UTC (19:36 CET) on December 12.

On 28 and 29 November the First Galileo User Assembly was jointly hosted by the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC) based within Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA) just outside Madrid. As the main interface for European GNSS and its users the GSC featured heavily in the Assembly with briefings on its performance and future service plans. Assembly participants also had the opportunity to visit the main operations centre within this secure facility.

Less than one year on from the launch of Galileo Initial Services (IS) in December 2016, the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC) near Madrid was the venue for the very first Galileo User Assembly jointly organised by the European Commission and the European GNSS Agency (GSA). During this highly successful gathering of the Galileo community, the European GNSS User Consultation Platform (UCP) was officially launched to provide an open forum for users to discuss their needs, share experiences and provide feedback on the performance of European GNSS (EGNSS).

In a recent article published by Geospatial World, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) discusses how the EGNOS Open Service and the EGNOS Data Access Service (EDAS) help provide users with improved location performance.

Now that surveyors worldwide are able to use Galileo positioning, following the declaration of Galileo Initial Services, all major Precise Point Positioning (PPP) providers in Europe have upgraded to Galileo and more than 50% of real time kinematic (RTK) network providers have already upgraded or have started to upgrade.

GSA is reaching out to receivers manufactures with a Galileo test campaign for GIS grade receivers.  Receivers will be tested using Signal in Space, and comparing GNSS constellations or their combinations both in a single frequency and dual frequency mode.

The SORUS solution, developed by Alexander Rügamer from Fraunhofer IIS and Dr Jan Wendel from Airbus Defence and Space, significantly reduces the security requirements and Galileo PRS costs per user device, which means that police, Special Forces, and other authorised Galileo PRS users can exploit the application to equip their UAVs with a secure, trustworthy, solution that is resistant to jamming and spoofing.

Precise timing and synchronization (T&S) is crucial for many applications. It plays a vital role in the protection of critical infrastructure, ranging from energy to telecommunications. Galileo provides a unique service to the T&S user community by delivering a free, stable and very accurate time-and-frequency source that is available worldwide.

The GSA discussed how Galileo helps the mapping and surveying sector harmonise geospatial data during the EUREF 2017 Symposium in Wroclaw, Poland.